Mapping a Crusade
Oswald and Margaret Dilke discuss the work of the cartographer-cum-Crusade-propagandist Marin Sanudo, who used his work to urge on a 14th-century initiative to recover Palestine from the infidel.
1987 marked the 800th anniversary of Saladin's capture of Jerusalem, a most significant event in Crusader history. Some in Arab countries pro- claimed the likely achievement, in that year, of their avowed aim, the recapture of the city. With only a brief intermission, it was in Islamic hands from 1187 to 1917-18, when British and allied forces under General Allenby captured the Holy Land from the Turks. From 1918 to 1948 Palestine (including all Jewish settlements) and Transjordan were administered as British mandates under the League of Nations. This was the first time for eight centuries that a Christian power controlled most parts of the Holy Land. After the British withdrawal, Jerusalem was divided between Israel and the Hashimite Kingdom of Jordan. In 1967 the Israelis occupied the remainder of Jerusalem and the territories up to the River Jordan. The continuing periods of war and unrest since then stress the difficulties of a solution. Possession of Jerusalem, because of its significance for the three great religions, not because of strategic position, is seen as of extreme importance.
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